Rays relievers Jake McGee and Brad Boxberger are two of the more coveted relief arms on the trade market, and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports that the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Nationals are among the interested teams (Twitter link). The Astros and Tigers have also been listed as possible suitors for Tampa Bay’s excellent eighth/ninth-inning duo. The left-handed McGee, 29, is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $4.7MM this offseason. The right-handed Boxberger, 27, is not yet arbitration eligible. Both have seen significant time in the ninth inning over the past two seasons, as McGee collected 25 saves from 2014-15, and Boxberger led the AL with 41 saves in 2015. McGee seems like the more obvious trade candidate, on paper, due to his projected 2016 salary, but Boxberger’s first-year arbitration price could be huge if he serves as manager Kevin Cash’s primary closer in 2016 and racks up 35 to 40 more saves. The Rays could simply elect to hold the pair as well; spending a combined $5.2MM or so for the pair certainly isn’t exorbitant, though it’s hard to envision both relievers in the mix beyond 2016, as they’ll probably be too expensive a pairing after next winter’s arb raises.
A few more notes from the AL East…
- Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes that Yankees GM Brian Cashman should be worrying about regression from players like Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez when constructing the roster this winter. Cashman said last week at the GM Meetings that his goal is to “upgrade our roster and not worry about regression on certain guys,” but Davidoff notes that it would be exceptionally risky to bank on Teixeira and A-Rod repeating both the health and the production they displayed in 2015, reminding how greatly they outperformed their preseason projections.
- Filling all of the holes on the Orioles’ roster is a near-impossible task for GM Dan Duquette without a significant payroll hike, writes Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com. Melewski points out that after Matt Wieters surprisingly accepted a qualifying offer last Friday, the team now has $57.6MM committed to four players — Wieters, J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones and Ubaldo Jimenez — plus $34.9MM worth of arbitration salaries (based on MLBTR’s projections). That places the Orioles at $92.5MM without even factoring in league-minimum players to round out the roster. Melewski uses Chris Davis and Alex Gordon as highly theoretical examples of players that could be brought in as major offseason signings (or, in Davis’ case, a re-signing), noting that that pair alone could cause Baltimore’s payroll to soar over $135MM while still leaving holes in the rotation and bullpen. Duquette has hinted that a payroll increase is certainly possible; over the weekend he discussed having the resources to not only re-sign Davis but also to bring in a No. 2 or No. 3 starter. The O’s opened the 2015 season with a $119MM payroll.
- The Blue Jays’ entire coaching staff will return in 2016 after agreeing to new contracts, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Davidi notes that the news isn’t necessarily a surprise, as Shapiro said during his recent introductory press conference that the entire staff had been invited back, but the finalization of the contracts is nonetheless noteworthy.
I think the Yankees should be targeting Julio Teheran in a trade instead of worrying about offense out of their 1B and DH spots, when Greg Bird proved he is more than capable of filling either role.
What has Bird proven? That after 46 games he is going to mash?
Joc Pederson through his first 46 games, had an .945OPS 12HR .283AVG and 55Ks.
Games 47-151, he has a .679OPS, 14HR, .186AVG, and 115Ks. (same k rate as Bird)
Bird’s MLB experience is too small to say he has proved anything.
Bird has proven he deserves a shot! If Cashman didn’t think so, he’d have traded him in July 2015. Over paying for vets, that’s the Yankees problem. They’re trying to fix that problem. They can’t fix it by signing more vets to cover vets.
Ya you just can’t expect teix to play 111 games like he did last year, that’s way too many.
“The Astros and Tigers have also been listed the Astros and Tigers.” That’s good, I suppose. I wouldn’t want them to be listed the Nationals and Red Sox
I don’t see the two of them being too expensive for the Rays. Especially considering that’s the price for both and what they paid for Balfour and Soriano.
Anything over 500k is too expensive for the Rays.
That’s what is being said. But in 2016 the pair will probably be in line for something along the lines of 12MM or so for the pair. Which would be pushing it for the Rays.
Yeah, that I can see. And honestly, they won’t need both. Cedeno was surprisingly good in high leverage situations, and the Rays do not need two closers in the bullpen. Put Cedeno as the set up man, and trade either one of the two. But at the moment this trade doesn’t seem too smart for the team considering they will probably be letting go of one or two other bullpen pieces to make room on the 40 man.
Signing Davis and Gordon puts the O’s at $135MM and leaves them in need of two starting pitchers and another outfielder.
Baltimore is at a turning point. Even if they uncharacteristically spend (which is unlikely) there’s no way they can fill all of their holes. And they don’t have the pieces to make a big trade.
Wieters accepting the QO made their off season much more interesting. Which way do they go from there?
Sign Gordon and let Davis walk. Davis will be way to expensive. Sign two good but not elite pitchers on the market: Gallardo, Iwakuma, Kazmir, Lackey, etc. Probably back load any dead so the Wieters and Umbaldo contracts are off the books by the time the real money starts coming in. As for first lets go ahead and try Wieters out there or Napoli.
Not thrilled about the payroll increase but it is not unreasonable to be at 150. Plus they do have plenty of trade chips. The Orioles system is not as bad as made out to be, it’s the injuries to Bundy and Harvey that make it look bad but the team still has valuable chips in Gausman, Gonzalez, Joseph/Clevenger, Wright, Wilson, Mancini, Walker, Reyes, Chris Lee, Sisco, Givens, etc. I don’t wanna trade Mancini but you have to consider it to go after a Todd Frazier type.
What does that even mean? Should Cash say “we’re looking for a middle of the order bat”? Where is this bat going to play? Trade Gardner for pitching and play one in the outfield? That’s about the only option and why would they look to replace Tex when they already have his replacement internally?
If the Baltimore Orioles are not going to trade midseason or in the offseason for prospects, the only way to be competitive is to increase payroll and sign free agents.
And the O’s had an offer out to Cruz last year which would have put the payroll up to $135 million. DD just did his let the market play out strategy last year and got stuck with nobody left to spend the money on. Not to mention the judge’s recent ruling on the MASN lawsuit.